If you want to open your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 1. Today we'll be spending most of our time thinking about a phrase Jesus says in verse 8, a very specific word actually. When Jesus says in verse 8 of Acts chapter 1, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you," or when He says earlier in the text that you should go to Jerusalem to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come. Today we're talking about the Holy Spirit. We've been talking about the ascension and the indwelling and how these two things work together for a couple of weeks. And today we're going to emphasize the idea that the Holy Spirit is a gift from God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God.
You're used to thinking, probably most people are used to talking about the gifts plural, of the Holy Spirit. We talk less often or think less often about the Holy Spirit as a gift, but that is repeatedly the kind of verbiage we see in the book of Acts as the Holy Spirit is moving into center stage, if you will, through the Acts of the Apostles. Repeatedly in the book of Acts, the apostles themselves refer to the Holy Spirit as a gift, and a gift specifically from Jesus. In the very next chapter, in chapter 2, Peter will actually commend the Jews, call the Jews to believe in the name of Jesus so that they can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Later on in chapter 8, Peter refers to the Holy Spirit as the gift from God. And then in chapters 10 and 11, when the gospel is opened up to the nations, Peter's whole equation on how the Gentiles will come to faith in Jesus and his whole understanding of the covenant being open to them is all predicated on what he keeps saying is, well, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Today I want to show you how thinking of the Holy Spirit as a gift from God will give us the right balance between what I referred to last week as the objective and subjective natures of the relationship we have with the Holy Spirit. I'll explain all that again later, so if you weren't here last week, you'll be able to pick up with me. I just want to emphasize now that the Holy Spirit is a gift and that the Holy Spirit is a gift from Jesus. So in Ephesians 4:8, Paul is describing, he's referring back to a Psalm that I'll show you in a moment, but he says in 4:8, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives and He gave gifts to men.
So Paul here is quoting from Psalm 68:18. Now let's look at Psalm 68:18. "But grace was given—" I'm sorry, "You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train, and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord may dwell there." What was the difference between those two texts? Paul quotes in Ephesians 4:8, Paul quotes Psalm 68:18, but he actually inverts one key principle. In Psalm 68:18, it says that men give God gifts. And in Ephesians 4, it says, as Paul is quoting this psalm, he changes it and says, "You gave gifts to men." The unique thing that's happening in the Gospel is basically that very dynamic change, right? That very shift. That the gospel, the shift of the gospel, is the shift from us giving gifts to God to God giving gifts to us. Not so that we stop giving gifts to God, of course, but so that our gifts may indeed be acceptable. God must first give us his gift.
Jesus is the only king in the history of the world that gives gifts to his citizens. All throughout Scripture, it's actually stated the other way. Repeatedly throughout history, we see it stated the other way, that we are responsible. If we have a good king or if we have a bad king, we need to give him gifts, right? Jesus is unique in that He gives gifts to His people. There's actually one incident that comes close to being like what I'm describing here in the life of David. I was talking with Victor and Seth earlier this week about this text and about this idea, and they brought up 2 Samuel 6. In 2 Samuel 6, the Ark of the Covenant, which stands for the presence of God in the Old Testament, right? The Ark of the Covenant had been taken away a long time before, and it was being returned to the people of God. So the presence of God is returned to the people of God, and David gives a gift to the people. He gives them some food. He gives them a lunch. He gives them a cake, some meat, and so on and so forth as a gift celebrating the return of the presence of God. So there's this foreshadowing, right? With David, when the presence of God returns to the people, David gives the people a gift. And now we see Jesus as the perfect king, not simply giving gifts when the presence of God returns, but giving the presence of God as the gift.
Jesus' primary gift is himself, of course. If God wanted to buy you a nice birthday present and he had all the money in the world, and more. He could go to any place to buy it. If he wanted to get you the very best of the very best of the very best, he would give you himself. It is God's kindness to give himself to us because he is the very best of the very best of the very best. He is the ultimate good. So what we see here with Jesus giving the church, giving his followers the Holy Spirit, is Jesus giving literally the gift that keeps on giving. This is such a cliché. I hate to use this analogy, but when I was a kid, you would read books about someone coming across a magic lamp and they would rub it and a genie would come out and they would get 3 wishes. And what are you screaming when you're 8 years old and reading this? What's the first wish you should wish for? More wishes. In giving the Holy Spirit, we have access to the treasury of Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us access to the treasury of Christ. In John 16, we read this last week, He makes this very thing plain. John 16:13, He says, "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak of His own authority, but whatever He hears Me speak, whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. So here's the Holy Spirit as the gift that keeps on giving, constantly bringing what is Christ's and placing it in our hearts, constantly supplying us with the realities of the ascended Christ. Verse 15: All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said he will take what is mine and declare it to you. What does Jesus have? All things. What does the Holy Spirit do? Give us what Jesus has. Declare it to us.
6 · Transitions from establishing the Holy Spirit as gift to exploring three implications, beginning with the observation that human sinfulness explains why there is so much controversy around the Holy Spirit
So this is the idea that we're thinking of, we're starting with. The Holy Spirit is a gift. And now we're going to think through 3 implications to this concept of the Holy Spirit as a gift. And the first one is simply this: no wonder there's so much abuse, so much controversy, so much confusion and discord regarding the Holy Spirit. We're terrible with gifts. This is our basic problem. We're terrible with gifts. Any gift that God gives, we'll figure out a way to worship it, to screw it up, to use it as a wedge between our brother or sister. We're terrible with gifts. Romans 1 says that this is our basic problem. We exchange the glory of the giver for the gift. We're just terrible with gifts. And we use them for all sorts of stupid reasons and provoke all sorts of controversies.
7 · Signals the shift to the second implication: that understanding the Spirit as gift establishes an objective, unchanging covenantal foundation rooted in God's initiative
So the first point is a really simple one. No wonder we have so many problems understanding the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit's a gift, we're terrible with gifts. The second point, quite more substantial than that one, is that the fact that the Holy Spirit is a gift gives us a firm, ain't gonna change element to our understanding of the Holy Spirit. Okay, the fact that the Holy Spirit is a gift from God gives us certain covenantal foundations that we know can't change. There's certain objective things about our relationship with God that are rooted in His coming to us first that we know can't change because they began in His initiation.
8 · Uses the marriage analogy from the previous week to illustrate that healthy relationships require both covenantal commitment (objective) and relational vitality (subjective), with commitment providing the foundation
Last week we referred to this idea as the two kinds of bad marriages, right? There's the bad marriage that is deeply covenantal, meaning they maybe don't have any actual love for one another in a practical sense, but they will never, ever, ever get divorced, right? Rock solid, not going to change. And then there's the relationship that is mostly chemistry. So they could be divorced 6 times in the next year. If such a thing were possible. But in between those times, things are great, right? And that there's this relational dynamic and this commitment dynamic, and that a good relationship always involves both of those things, right? And that it always begins with this commitment. This is a basic gospel lesson. All love flows out of unconditional commitment. If you can just say, absolutely, I am with you, period, We are— that's just end of story. We're not separating. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. All of Ruth. All great love stories, all great biblical love stories flow out of this rock-solid, ain't gonna change commitment. Out of that should foster real love, practical love, practical enjoyment, practical romance.
9 · Expounds the Reformed understanding of grace from Ephesians 2:8-10, establishing that God's gifts—especially salvation and the Spirit—are completely unmerited, given to spiritually dead people who cannot initiate the relationship
Any relationship, that's the key to any relationship. I mean, you don't want to be romantic with your friend, but you know what I mean. Enjoyment, experience, friendship, all of these things flow out of this sense of commitment. So what we're thinking about the gift of the Holy Spirit, we're thinking about both of these things. There's an objective quality because it is God's gift to us. Reformed folks do especially well with this aspect of God's gifts. This is the Reformed strong suit. Most Christians here today are Reformed in their soteriology and their understanding of salvation. Not all of you are, and certainly not a requirement for membership, but this is the thing Reformed folks do well when it comes to God gifts. They understand this unmerited element of gifts better than the average garden-variety generic Christian. They understand that better because it all flows out of their understanding of grace. And their understanding of grace is rooted in a text like Ephesians 2. So let me just give you a quick run-through there. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast. For we as workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. When the Bible refers to a gift from God, it refers to a gift that we did not earn. That's the baseline of Reformed thinking related to gifts and the part of Reformed thinking that does very well with gifts. You can't do anything to merit your own salvation. That's what, that's what Ephesians 2:8-10 is saying. Grace is a totally undeserved gift. Earlier in this section, Paul is describing the human condition as being fundamentally dead, and dead people don't ask for gifts. They're just dead. Even recognizing that something is good would be a work. Right? And Paul's saying there are no works here. There are no works involved. You've been saved by a total radical act of God's initiating grace.
10 · Asserts that the Holy Spirit comes on the same terms as the Father and Son—by God's initiative, not human merit—and rejects the idea that the Spirit is waiting for believers to reach some advanced spiritual level
When the Bible talks about gifts from God, it means this: it means unmerited, absolute, unconditional favor. This is true with every gift that God gives us. We don't deserve any of them, but especially true when the gift is God himself, right? So thinking about the Holy Spirit as a gift helps us to stay rooted in this covenantal this absolute, this objective part of our understanding of the Holy Spirit. When God gives us Himself, you can bet one thing: you didn't earn that. You didn't jump through a hoop to get it. You didn't initiate getting it, and you don't deserve it. Now, if that's how I came into contact with the Father, and that's how I came into contact with the Son, then that's also how I come into contact with the Spirit. It's actually It's actually exactly the opposite of what I said, because the Spirit is the working dynamic force that introduces me to God. The point is, the Holy Spirit's not out there somewhere waiting for us to get to video game level 6 so that we can understand our need for Him and then jump through a bunch of hoops to get Him. That's not how God gives Himself, and that's not how God gives His gifts.
11 · Makes the polemic claim that second-blessing theology contradicts Reformed soteriology because it treats the Spirit as something humans can initiate or earn, rather than as God's sovereign gift to all believers in Christ
Now, let me just say this as absolute conviction that may be controversial. The idea that there is a second filling of the Holy Spirit is entirely incompatible with Reformed thinking. It just doesn't fit. Because what we mean when we talk about God coming to us is that. God coming to us. God initiating. God acting. God taking the first step. The Holy Spirit is the regenerating power that wakes us up from spiritual death. He was working long before we had any interest in Him, and if He isn't working, then we aren't interested in Him. So this is a key factor as we think about the Holy Spirit. We don't want to hold the Holy Spirit up as some sort of extra, as an upgrade. As a separator between two classes of Christians. Those who have some of the Holy Spirit and those who have more of the Holy Spirit. We're talking about God here, not gear. The Holy Spirit, like every member of the Godhead, must initiate a relationship with us without us knowing we need that relationship. And so we do this part, Reformed soteriologists, those who think about grace in a Reformed way, do this element of gifting well. We understand that gifts from God are simply initiated entirely by God and not because we deserve them.
12 · Exegetes Acts 8:20 to show that Simon's error was not merely attempting to buy the Spirit with money, but thinking he could initiate a relationship with the Spirit through any human means whatsoever
In Acts 8:20, which is one of the instances where Peter refers to the Holy Spirit as a gift, there's a man named Simon who tries to buy the Holy Spirit from Peter. You know, I really like to put myself in the passage and try to imagine. I just really have a hard time imagining it would ever occur to me to buy the Holy Spirit. Then I thought, you know, it might be just because I don't have enough money. Maybe I just don't think that way. But just think, just forget about the money for a minute because that's not the real controversy here. The real controversy of this moment isn't that he thought he could buy money, buy the Holy Spirit. It's not as if he could have said, hey, could I cook you a really good meal and maybe you could give me the Holy Spirit? Or Hey, could I give you a good deal on a donkey? The issue isn't that he tried to buy the Holy Spirit. It's that he thought that he could initiate a relationship with the Holy Spirit just because he wanted it. And Peter says, no. Peter actually says, may you perish with your money. There's actually a nice little curse word buried in the Greek there that I won't get into.
13 · Traces the theological trajectory from rejecting Reformed soteriology to embracing prosperity gospel, showing how abandoning God's initiative leads to treating all divine blessings as things we can command
So this idea, this idea that you can get— that the Holy Spirit's waiting for us at some level-up stage of Christianity is just bunk. It doesn't work. And I want to show you how this kind of works just so you can be aware of it. When you've abandoned Reformed thinking about salvation, then you basically believe you're saved because you told Jesus what you wanted. Right? You basically believe that you and Jesus had a conversation, you signed on the dotted line, you said, "This is what I want." Well, let's take that a next step. You then begin to believe that that's also what you must do for the Holy Spirit. If Jesus was up in heaven waiting for you to just realize that you needed Him, and not initiating your salvation and working your salvation and giving you your salvation, Then you think, well, okay, Jesus was waiting there, I had to tell Him what I wanted. And when I told Him what I wanted, and when I really, really meant it, then He saved me. Well, if you think that about Jesus, you're going to think that about the Spirit. You're going to think that the Spirit comes the same way. That the Spirit is just sort of waiting, twiddling His thumbs, waiting for us, and then we have to ask the Spirit to give us Himself, and then He will give us Himself. And that this is this level-up kind of concept. Now, so far we've told Jesus what to do, we've told the Holy Spirit what to do, and now we're only seconds away from asking the Father for a Cadillac in perfect health. You see how the progression works when we believe that it's our responsibility to initiate God's blessings on ourselves? When we start telling the members of the Godhead what to do? That's not what the Holy Spirit's about. You— that's not how you will get more of the Holy Spirit.
14 · Steps outside the theological argument to directly pastor the congregation, offering comfort that the Spirit's presence depends entirely on God's faithfulness, not human performance
So the fact that the Holy Spirit is a gift from Jesus gives us this objective certitude. Jesus loves us. That's it. We don't deserve it. He gives us gifts we don't deserve. We didn't earn him. We can't keep him. His presence in my life depends on his wisdom and goodness, which at first feels really scary but eventually becomes a huge comfort. As soon as we get out of the process of God initiating and giving himself to us, it's a very scary thing to decide that that's good, I'm gonna leave that entirely up to God. It winds up being the main comfort of your life, as it should be with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to give himself to those who are in Christ. Christ has called for it to be so. The Father has promised that it would be so. Those who are in Christ have the Spirit. End of story. It's his gift. To get back to a text that seems like we might have walked away from a long time ago, Jesus says you will receive the Holy Spirit. Not you might if you do X, Y, and Z, or someone puts their hand on your face and pushes you backward. You will receive the Holy Spirit.
15 · Transitions to the subjective element by establishing that while all believers receive the Spirit equally, how we steward that gift produces varying levels of fruitfulness—a dimension Reformed theology often neglects
Now, that's the objective element that comes with thinking about the Holy Spirit as a gift. But now let's talk about the subjective element. Because there is indeed a subjective element. And I just want to make a moment just to say we understand, right, that there's a subjective element to Christianity, right? So for instance, Matthew 13:8 where Jesus is doing the parable of the sowers and He says that the good seed, the good ground bore fruit. But then He says some 100, some 60, some 30-fold. This idea that your results may vary is a basic fact of Christianity. It's a basic concept that is important. And this is what Reformed people do terribly, is that they forget that there is a subjective relational element to our interactions with the Godhead and that your results may vary. We all have equal gifts. God's given Himself to us equally, but our stewardship of His gift will determine at some degree how that fruitfulness manifests. Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians, "Run to win the prize." He's saying that there's lots of people who are running, but not everyone's running to win a prize. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul says, "Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable." Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. Do you see that everybody's in the house? Everybody's a vessel, but your results may vary.
16 · Introduces the stewardship dimension with Tozer's prophetic diagnosis: contemporary Christianity has substituted counterfeit spirituality for genuine Spirit-empowered life
There is a subjective element to all of this. God's gifts are equally given. God has equally given everybody Himself, but not all gifts are equally stewarded. And that's what we need to think about here, is this idea of our stewardship of God's gift of the Holy Spirit. Laying the foundation that it is of God completely and entirely beyond our works, we must then understand that everything in our subjective experience with God does indeed depend in some mysterious level on how we respond. I want to start with the A.W. Tozer punch in the face here and then move into encouragement. Tozer said this: We may as well face it, the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the initiative to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. We have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord, and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.
17 · Affirms both the magnificence of the Spirit and the necessity of addressing stewardship without diminishing God's objective gift-giving
The gift is amazing. The gift of God The Holy Spirit, our counselor, our comforter, who brings us Christ and who brings us the treasury of Christ in real time, who declares the treasury of Christ in real time. It's an amazing, amazing, amazing gift. But we do have to talk about your stewardship of that gift. It doesn't withhold anything related to God's goodness or kindness or the objective way in which he gives you himself. But we do have to talk about how you steward that gift.
18 · Uses a hypothetical scenario involving children receiving money to illustrate that equal gifts produce unequal results based on character and stewardship patterns already evident in their lives
We've got a number of big families in our church, and I would bet you that if I said, let's do an experiment, Victor will pay for it. We're gonna give every one of your kids, every one of your kids, $1,000 when they're 12 years old. Thank you, Victor. If every one of your kids, when they turn 12 years old, $1,000. Parents, you would be able to predict, even if your kiddo is 6, 7 years old, you would probably be able to predict amongst your kids who would do especially well with that $1,000 and who would just wind up with a lot of cavities, right, and broken toys. You'd be able to look at your kids, they're different ages, different personalities, you'd be able to say this one may actually wind up building an empire on this $1,000, and this one is gonna have one great day. Right? You'd be able to say that. That's the truth when it comes to our stewardship of God's gifts. And here we are talking about the greatest gift himself, the Holy Spirit. It's true that we could say, generally speaking, that some people are going to really make the most of this— well, I don't think anybody makes the most of this, but make a lot of it, and others aren't so much.
19 · Connects the illustration to Acts 1 by arguing that Jesus spent three years training the disciples in habits that would prepare them to steward the Spirit well
Now, how could we say that? How could we say that about our kids? How could we say that about believers? Well, I think you'd be able to look at these 12-year-olds and I think you'd be able to say, or even when they're younger, I think you'd be able to say that there are certain character qualities certain habits that are already kind of showing up that will lead them to interact with this massive gift that Victor's giving them in various ways, right? I think you'd be able to say even no matter how old they are, there are certain habits, there are certain character qualities that is going to influence how they will respond to this gift. Which is how you would be able to predict how they'd do. I think what we're seeing in Acts 1 is a group of men who had been trained for 3 years by the greatest teacher in the history of the world how to make the most out of the greatest gift in the history of the world. I think what you're seeing in Acts 1 is the emergence of men who have been trained to be good stewards of God's good gifts. So that even before they technically receive the Holy Spirit, which comes in the next chapter, we see these disciples engaging in activities that are primed for making good stewardship use of the Holy Spirit.
20 · Introduces the sermon's organizing framework: seven habits observed in Acts 1 that the disciples practiced, beginning with expecting great things for God's kingdom despite getting many details wrong
Years ago, somebody wrote a book. You've probably seen it at the thrift shop and also probably at the bookstore: Seven Habits of Highly successful people. I just went through this chapter and found 7 habits that these folks are engaged in that really are maximizing their stewardship of the Holy Spirit. The first one is found in verse 6. We've talked about a lot of this before, and if you are new to this series, there's some more stuff about this earlier. In verse 6, we see them say, so when had they So when they'd come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" We've said repeatedly that they've got so much wrong in this question, they've got so much wrong, but we commend them in this sense: they expect big things for the kingdom. I think that's a habit that Jesus himself instilled in them, and I think that's the first habit that I would commend to you to maximize your stewardship of the Holy Spirit.
21 · Applies the first habit by calling the congregation to dream big for God's kingdom, then introduces the second habit: being witnesses, noting that the Spirit is given primarily for gospel proclamation
Friends, if you're in Christ, you are a partaker of the divine nature. You have the very Spirit of God living inside of you, and you rub elbows with a bunch of other people. Right now you're rubbing elbows with a bunch of other people who have the Spirit of God living inside of them. I'd say if there's one habit we could just start with to talk about how to maximize our stewardship of this incredible gift, it would just be that we should be dreamers and that we should expect big things. And we should look for big things, and we should hope for big things for the kingdom of God. We know that these guys had all sorts of details wrong, but friends, that is— God's kindness is always going to take, as we talked about before, a young ox and train him without breaking him. And friends, enthusiasm and ambition for the kingdom of God is going to make a difference. In your stewardship of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, be witnesses. Verse 7 and 8, Jesus responds, he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Friends, the Holy Spirit is primarily a utility, a gift for the sharing of the gospel.
22 · Illustrates the witness-bearing habit with a personal story of evangelistic conversation and argues that the primary difference between those who experience the Spirit's power and those who don't is simply whether they engage in witnessing
I've done a lot of theological work on this. I wrote papers on this way back in Bible college. And you know, if you were to take 100 random people from what we'll call the Pentecostal side that believe in a second filling, they believe that you've got to have a second experience of grace to receive the Holy Spirit. Take 100 of those people, take 100 people who don't believe that, who believe you get the Holy Spirit whenever you whenever you're saved. Let's take those 100 people here and 100 people here, and they're going to have big differences. Like, they're going to be way more tambourines over here, you know, maybe way more MacArthur Study Bibles over here, right? Big differences. But as you follow these two groups of people, what you'd see is there's one difference. There's one thing that's not different at all. Neither group in 5 years will be active in sharing their faith. That tells you that it's not so much about how you get the Holy Spirit, about what you do with the Holy Spirit. And Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to convict the world— this is back in John 16— to convict the world regarding sin, righteousness, righteousness and judgment. 3 days ago, I was somewhere sitting there by myself reading through my sermon notes. A guy came and sat next to me with a Cardinals shirt. Why? Why in God's providential sovereignty does He allow the only other reasonable person in Kansas City to sit next to me? No, but you're thinking, the Holy Spirit's working right now. I don't know how, but he's working right now. If I were to guess, generally, what's the Holy Spirit want me to do right now? It's probably to be a witness. So what's the Holy Spirit doing right now? Setting this fine, successful man next to me. And sure enough, he said, Cardinals, fist bump, talked about our past, talked about where we're from, so on and so forth. Spent an hour talking about the gospel with this guy. Well, that was completely orchestrated. Me being there, this guy being there, the conversation going in the direction that it went. And friends, if God is not real to you, if you're in this sort of, this sort of, ugh, this malaise, I would suggest that one reason for that is that He's doing stuff. And you're not. So He's over there. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to be witnesses. It is by and large this other massive thing that affects our understanding and enjoyment, the subjective element. Why do some people seem to do so much more with the Holy Spirit than others? This is one of those habits. And friends, that's all it is. It's a habit. It's a choice. It is a choice to be actively engaged, actively sensitive to opportunities to share the good news of Jesus with other people.
23 · Introduces the third habit (looking to Jesus) by exposing the irony in Acts 1:9-11 where the disciples are rebuked for physically looking up when they should spiritually look to Christ through the Spirit
So that's the second habit. A third habit is just to look to Jesus. Again, this is an example of the disciples doing the right thing the wrong way. Look at verse 9. And he said these things as they were looking on. He was lifted up, this is Jesus, a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven. Now there's just this very awkward, almost Monty Python moment of anticlimax, right? Jesus is taken up and they're all just standing, standing there looking up. And they have to be told, I know for the last 3 years your whole pattern has been to look to Jesus. Continue that pattern. But that pattern now will not involve looking up into the clouds. That pattern will now involve entering into a relationship with the Holy Spirit where He declares all the things that Jesus is to you consistently. Friends, I wonder how often— I think it's funny, by the way, that they get, they get kind of rebuked here for this, because in Colossians 3, what does it say? It says, look to heaven, look, look to Jesus, look up, look to Jesus. But we see there's a spiritual thing and a physical thing going on.
24 · Applies the third habit with specific instruction about daily Christ-consciousness through prayer, then introduces the fourth habit: obeying Jesus, noting that the disciples returned to Jerusalem in obedience and warning about accumulated disobedience
It's actively throughout your day, one of the ways you can maximize your stewardship of this precious gift is to just seek to see Jesus and to be reminded of Jesus' rule and reign and to be reminded of Jesus' reality and his goodness and asking the Holy Spirit, I just want to walk with Jesus today. I just want to keep my eyes on Jesus today. I want to be thinking about Jesus today. Would you lift my heart and my thoughts upward to Christ today? That's the third habit. Fourth habit, obey Jesus. Verse 12, it says, then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. Why'd they go back to Jerusalem? Because Jesus told them to go back to Jerusalem. Over time, I've been there, I've been there many times. Over time, we say no to God and we never return. To repent and say, "Sorry, I need to obey you." Friends, so consistently we just say no and we forget that we said no and we move on. And our life is full of way more nos than you might think.
25 · Uses a visceral biological analogy to illustrate the accumulation of unaddressed disobedience in believers' lives
I was reading a journal the other week that said that the average person carries 8 meals 8 digested meals in their colon at any given time. I want you to take that feeling you're feeling right now and understand that your nos to God are way worse. And you carry more of them than you think you do.
26 · Applies the fourth habit with a prayer model for identifying disobedience, then introduces the fifth habit: unity, observing that the disciples were together 'with one accord
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you an open, sensitive heart to ways in which you have said no. To ways in which you're not obeying. Obvious ways that you know He would have you obey. Small things that you said, well, maybe later. Maybe I can do this later. Maybe there'll be a better time to do this. Just ask. Just ask the Holy Spirit, is there anything? Is there a no? Is there a collection of nos? Are there many nos that have built up? Please do a work in me to help me to obey Jesus. That's the fourth habit, obeying Jesus. Fifth habit, unity. Verse 13, and when they'd entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying— Peter and John and James and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. And all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. The Bible says that Jesus expressly gives the Holy Spirit to unify the brothers and sisters in Christ. If you pursue unity, you'll experience the Spirit.
27 · Illustrates the unity habit with a personal story of Spirit-prompted concern for a church member, then applies it by calling for daily community concern
I had an experience the last couple weeks where I woke up thinking about a guy in this church. I don't like that. I don't like you guys that much. I woke up thinking about a guy, like right, like as soon as I was awake, I'm thinking about this guy. And I'm just like, well, that's weird. So I start praying for him and I'm thinking about him and I'm just asking the Lord, what's going on here? And so at some point in the day, I just reach out to him and I just say, "Hey, I'm praying for you. I've been thinking about you." I didn't tell him like right when I woke up, but, "I'm praying for you. Are you okay?" And it was the perfect moment that the Holy Spirit designed so that that person would be encouraged toward Christ and away from sin in a very unique and particular way. Just so we're all on the same page, the Bible has a bias toward daily community. Right? Consider daily how to stir one another up to faith and good deeds. It said that at a time when it was much more difficult to actually stay in contact on a daily basis. But the idea that in our hearts, we should be daily concerned for the brothers. If you say, that's what I want. That's the Bible. That's what it teaches. The Holy Spirit is going to bless you, and you're going to be a better steward of the Holy Spirit if you decide that you're going to walk with one another in a daily way as much as possible. That's the fifth habit.
28 · Introduces the sixth habit (prayer) with personal testimony about prayer's role in combating anxiety, then introduces the seventh habit (Bible study) by showing Peter interpreting Scripture through the Spirit
Number 6, prayer. Obvious, right? The last two are pretty obvious. With one accord, verse 14, they were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. Friends, the Spirit is actually given to us to help us to pray. I realized this morning as I woke up, and there were a number of things that I, I probably didn't need to worry about, but that I started worrying about. Things that are outside of my control, things that were outside of my control in a really big way, or just I can't do anything about that today. And I realized, where would I be without prayer? Where would all this go? Where would all this go? I'll tell you where it would go. It would go to anxiety. It's exactly where it would go. Paul says, if you will be consistent in lifting up your prayers, don't be anxious about anything, but lift everything up to him, that he will guard your hearts. So this 6th habit of Holy Spirit people is just consistent daily, consistent throughout the day prayer. And number 7, the 7th habit is Bible study. In verse 15, it says, in those days Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was all about 120, and he said, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled when the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
29 · Completes the exposition of Peter's Scripture use, acknowledging it as apostolic-level interpretation while extracting the principle that regular Scripture intake gives the Spirit material to work with over time
For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out. 8 meals right there. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language, Akedelma, that is, the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, may his camp be desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it, and let another take his office. Now, I call this the Bible ninja. Like, this is way above our ability. This is apostolic Bible study here. We don't get to interpret scriptures this way. The thing that Paul did with Psalm 68, you know, that where he reinterprets it, he inverts the language of gifting— there's some apostolic-level Bible stuff going on here. But the basic idea is this: Jesus had instilled in these men such a warm and familiar relationship with God's Word that when they did receive the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit was making connections for them that you would never have seen in a million years. The Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into all truth. This is one of the basic ways you could be a good steward of this amazing gift, is to spend lots of face time in God's Word, just letting the Holy Spirit build stuff up. It doesn't even always make sense, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to understand everything that you read. If you will devote yourself over a long period of time to putting the Word of God in, Holy Spirit will assemble all sorts of cool things at the right moment, at the right time, and you will experience the Holy Spirit in a unique way.
30 · Begins conclusion by restating the objective-subjective balance: the Spirit is absolutely secure in Christ, but we steward the gift by pressing in for more through the seven habits Jesus built into the disciples
If you're in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. It is objectively yours because Christ is objectively yours. The Holy Spirit is for you because He came before you. He initiated your entire life in Christ. He was the one who woke you up, and He is the one who will keep you. And He isn't flaky like you and I are. He won't get tired of you. He won't give up on you. He won't walk away. He will never leave you or forsake you. There is that objective foundation to everything we think about when it comes to the Christian life. And then we say, how do I make use of this amazing gift? How do I become a wise steward, a good steward, happy steward of this amazing gift? I read a quote this week from Spurgeon that said, if a man is not pressing in to know more of Christ, he doesn't know Christ. If a man is not pressing in to know more of Christ, he doesn't know Christ. The response with faith to God's gifts is to say, more please. Yes please. More please. Let me enjoy this gift. Let me make the most of this gift. And we see in the lives of these disciples, these imperfect men who get all sorts of things wrong, kind of stumble into one of the biggest revivals in history only because of grace. Jesus had built these habits up in them.
31 · Offers two pastoral encouragements: if you have some habits, see them as infrastructure for the Spirit to fill; and corporately, the church together embodies all seven habits even where individuals may be weak
I want to end this by encouraging you. You may have some of these habits built into your life already. Praise God! The Holy Spirit can grow on those trellises. The Holy Spirit can fill those habits with vitality and life. But that's what I would say. If you've already got some of these going, this is a perfect time to be reminded of why they're there. Those things are not there so that you do them. Those things are not there so that you can check off a list. Those things are there as the superstructure for the Spirit of God to grow on and be in, and for you to experience vitality in your relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is willing to inhabit those things. That's why he came. So be encouraged that you have some of those. Just remember that they're supposed to be filled with God himself. Number 2, I want you to be encouraged that this church has so many of these. Whether you yourself are walking in these 7 habits in a way that you feel like is appropriate, I will tell you this, that, that together we got all 7 covered, right? There are people here who are doing one of these really well, at least one of these really well. And together as a body, we, when we walk together, are able to experience the Spirit in a unique way. Because these things are real as a body in this church. The Holy Spirit will fill those things, will continue to fill those things, will continue to use those things. It's not an excuse to not grow and thrive and press in, but it is great to see. It is great to see God's faithfulness in this regard.
32 · Closing prayer rehearsing the sermon's two-part structure: thanksgiving for the objective gift of the Spirit and petition to be good stewards of that gift by pressing deeper into relationship with God
Let me pray. Lord, as a dad, I know what this is like to To be able to, for me, you know, I don't take any credit for it, but I just see, wow, my kids have some things that are good. My kids have some things that are pretty great, actually. And to eagerly hope that they make the most of them. I know my parents thought the same thing. So Lord, we identify with that element as fathers and mothers even today, or as children. We identify with that idea that you have not withheld your hand in lavishing us with your kindness. You have given us yourself. You have given us the treasury of Christ. You've given us everything. And as a Father, Lord, we thank you for your kindness and your lavish grace. And we also acknowledge we don't do gifts very well. We tend to turn gifts into reasons for boasting, into reasons for separation. We tend to make more of the gift than the giver. So Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness and your steadfast kindness. You're so gracious and generous, and you continue in your generosity even when you see that we are not good stewards of your gifts. Thank you, Lord. Today we acknowledge two basic truths: that the Holy Spirit has been given to us in Christ Jesus, that as we are united by faith and to Jesus, trust in Him as our righteousness and our only hope for salvation, that the Holy Spirit is given as the mediator, the appropriator of all of Christ's goodness to us. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for working in us long before we ever knew anything about this or knew that we needed you. We acknowledge that, and we know that everything else is built on that truth. Lord, we say with eyes hopefully of faith, with hearts of faith, I want to be a good steward of what you've given me. I want to make the most out of this amazing gift. Please, Lord, let us press into you. Let us stop comparing ourselves with ourselves. Let us stop manufacturing alternative counterfeit forms of power. When we ought to be living in your power, when we ought to be pressing in deeper into life with you. May we be especially good stewards of your amazing gift of your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.